BRITISH WINES.
The different processes in wine making, range
themselves under the following heads:
Gathering the fruit,—picking the fruit,—bruising
the fruit,—and vatting the fruit.
Vinous fermentation, flavouring the wine,—drawing
the must,—pressing the husks,—casking
the must.
Spirituous fermentation, racking the wine,—fuming
the wine,—bottling and corking the
wine.
APPARATUS FOR WINE MAKING.
To make wine well, and with facility, persons
should have all the requisite apparatus,
namely, the vats, vat-staff, fruit-bruiser,
strainer, hair-bags, canvas-bags, wine-press,
thermometer, and bottling-machine.
133. GATHERING THE FRUIT.
Fruit of every description, says Mr. Carnell, in his excellent
treatise on wine making, should be gathered in fine weather;
those of the berry kind often appear ripe to the eye before
they really are so, therefore it is requisite to taste them
several times in order to ascertain that they are arrived at
the crisis of maturity. If the fruit be not ripe, the wine
will be harsh and hard, and unpleasant to the palate, and
more so to the stomach; it will also take more spirit and
saccharine, and take a longer time to be fit for the table.
If the fruit be too ripe, the wine from it will be faint, low,
and vapid; it will not be strong and generous; it will also
require more trouble, additional spirit, and expense.
134. PICKING.
Detach the unripe and bad berries: the result when the
wine is drank, will be greatly superior in richness. Pick
the stalks from grapes, currants, and gooseberries, previously
to their being placed in the vat.
135. BRUISING.
The quantity of fruit for making a vintage of domestic
wine, is not so large but it may be bruised in a tub, and from
thence removed into the vat, or if the quantity be very
small, it may be bruised in the vat. While the fruit is picking
by one person, another may bruise it, and as it is bruised
remove it into the vat. When Malaga or Smyrna raisins
are used, they are to be put into the vat with the water, to
soak, and the following day taken out and bruised, then
returned into the vat again.
136. VATTING.
The first thing to be done is to place the guard against
the tap-hole, to prevent the husks escaping at the time the
must or extract is drawn off. When all the fruit is in the
vat the water should be added, and the contents stirred with
the vat-staff, and left to macerate until the next day, when
sugar, tartar, &c. diluted with some of the liquor, is to be
put into the vat, and the whole again stirred up. The place
where the vat is situated should have a free circulation of
air, and a temperature of not less than 58 degrees. If the
vinous fermentation do not take place, in a reasonable time,
the contents must be often stirred, and the place made
warmer.
137. VINOUS FERMENTATION.
The time of a vinous fermentation commencing is always
uncertain; it depends much on the quality and quantity of
the contents of the vat, on its local situation, on the season
or weather, and most particularly on the greenness or ripeness
of the fruit. To produce a medium vinous fermentation,
the vats and contents ought to be placed in a temperature
from 60 to 70 degrees. And if this is found not to
produce fermentation in a short time, the temperature of the
place must be made warmer, and the vat often stirred with
the vat-staff.
The commencement of the vinous fermentation may be
known by plunging the thermometer into the middle of the
vat, for a minute, and when taken out, if a fermentation
has commenced, the temperature of the contents will be
higher than at the place where the vats are situated. When
the vinous fermentation begins, it is very conspicuous, and
may be known by its taste, smell, appearance, and effects.
The contents will first gently rise, and swell with a slight
movement and a little hissing. A considerable motion will
take place, and the contents will increase in heat and bulk,
while a quantity of air escapes.
It is impossible to lay down an exact time for a vinous
fermentation; but for eighteen gallons, two or three days
are generally sufficient for white wines; and red wines
require a day or two more.
138. FLAVOURING.
When the vinous fermentation is about half over, the
flavouring ingredients are to be put into the vat and well
stirred into the contents. If almonds form a component
part, they are first to be beaten to a paste and mixed with a
pint or two of the must. Nutmegs, cinnamon, ginger, seeds,
&c. should, before they are put into the vat, be reduced to
powder, and mixed with some of the must.
139. DRAWING THE MUST.
When the must in the vat gives, by tasting, a strong
vinous pungency, that is the period to stop the remaining
slight fermentation, by drawing off the must, in order to have
strong and generous wine.
A cock, or spicket and faucet, is to be put into the tap-hole
of the vat, and the must drawn off and put into open
vessels, there to remain till the pressing is finished.
140. PRESSING THE HUSKS.
As soon as all the must is drawn off from the vat, the
husks are to be put into hair-bags, and the mouth of each
bag is to be well fastened, then put into the press, and
the whole pressed without delay. The must that is pressed
out is to be mixed with the must that was drawn off from
the vat. Many ways may be contrived for pressing a small
vintage, for those persons who cannot afford to purchase a
proper wine-press; but several wines do not require pressing;
and may be strained through a sweet, clean, canvas bag,
made with a pointed end downwards.
141. CASKING THE MUST.
Each cask is to be filled, within about an inch of the
bung-hole, which should be covered over lightly with a flat
piece of wood. The must now is perfectly cool and calm,
and will remain in this state until the spirituous fermentation
commences.
142. SPIRITUOUS FERMENTATION.
The spirituous fermentation is essentially necessary to the
clarification, goodness, and perfection of the wine. If the
vinous fermentation has been well conducted, and the wine
cellar be not too cold, a spirituous fermentation will commence
in a few days, and abate in six or twelve days, the
time depending on circumstances, and on the quality and
quantity of the wine. The brandy or spirit assigned should
at this time be put to the wine by pouring it in gently without
disturbing the wine. The cask now, if not full, must be
filled up and bunged with a wooden bung covered with a
piece of new canvass larger than the bung. In about a
month after the spirit has been added, the cask will again
want filling up; this should be done with the overplus of the
vintage, if not with some other good wine, and the cask
re-bunged very tight. The cask should be pegged once a
month or oftener to see if the wine be clear and not thick,
and as soon as it is fine and bright, it must be racked off its lees.
143. RACKING.
This is an operation highly requisite to the keeping wine
good; to its purification, strength, colour, brilliancy, richness,
and flavour, and is performed by drawing off the wine
and leaving the lees in the cask. A siphon should be used
but if not, the cask should be tapped two or three days
previously. It may be racked off into another cask, or
into a vat or tub, and returned into the same cask again,
after it has been well cleaned; and, if requisite, the cask may
be slightly fumigated, immediately before the wine is returned
into it. If the wine, on being tasted, is found weak,
a little spirit is to be given to it, the cask filled up and
bunged tight.
The racking off ought to be performed in temperate
weather, and as soon as the wines appear clear, a second
racking will make them perfectly brilliant, and if so they will
want no fining.
144. FINING.
Many wines require fining before they are racked, and the
operation of fining is not always necessary. Most wines,
well made, do not want fining; this may be ascertained by
drawing a little into a glass, from a peg-hole.
One of the best finings is as follows:—Take one pound
of fresh marsh-mallow roots, washed clean, and cut into
small pieces; macerate them in two quarts of soft water, for
twenty-four hours, then gently boil the liquor down to three
half pints, strain it, and when cold, mix with it half an
ounce of pipe-clay or chalk, in powder, then pour the
mucilage into the cask, and stir up the wine so as not to
disturb the lees, and leave the vent-peg out for some days
after.
Or, take boiled rice, two table-spoonsful, the white of
one new egg, and half an ounce of burnt alum, in powder.
Mix with a pint or more of the wine, then pour the mucilage
into the cask, and stir the wine with a stout stick, but not to
agitate the lees.
Or, dissolve, in a gentle heat, half an ounce of isinglass
in a pint or more of the wine, then mix with it half an
ounce of chalk, in powder; when the two are well incorporated,
pour it into the cask, and stir the wine so as not to
disturb the lees.
As soon as wines are clear and bright, after being fined
down, they ought to be racked into a sweet and clean cask,
the cask filled up and bunged tight.
145. BOTTLING AND CORKING.
Fine clear weather is best for bottling all sorts of wines,
and much cleanliness is required. The first consideration,
in bottling wines, is to examine and see if the wines are in
a proper state. The wines should be fine and brilliant, or they
will never brighten after.
The bottles must be all sound, clean, and dry, with plenty
of good sound corks.
The cork is to be put in with the hand, and then driven
well in with a flat wooden mallet, the weight of which ought
to be a pound and a quarter, but however, not to exceed a
pound and a half, for if the mallet be too light or too heavy
it will not drive the cork in properly, and may break the bottle.
The corks must so completely fill up the neck of each
bottle as to render them air tight, but leave a space of an
inch between the wine and the cork.
When all the wine is bottled, it is to be stored in a cool
cellar, and on no account on the bottles’ bottoms, but on their
sides and in saw-dust.
146. MR. CARNELL’s RECEIPT FOR RED GOOSEBERRY WINE.
Take cold soft water, 10 gallons,
red gooseberries, 11 gallons, and ferment.
Now mix raw sugar, 16 lbs.
beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs. and
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 ounces.
Afterwards put in sassafras chips, 1 lb. and
brandy, 1 gallon, or less.
This will make 18 gallons.
147. Another.
When the weather is dry, gather gooseberries about the
time they are half ripe; pick them clean, put the quantity of
a peck into a convenient vessel, and bruise them with a piece
of wood, taking as much care as possible to keep the seeds
whole. Now, having put the pulp into a canvass-bag, press
out all the juice; and to every gallon of the gooseberries
add about three pounds of fine loaf-sugar: mix the whole
together by stirring it with a stick, and as soon as the sugar
is quite dissolved, pour it into a convenient cask, which will
hold it exactly. If the quantity be about eight or nine gallons,
let it stand a fortnight; if twenty gallons, forty days,
and so on in proportion; taking care the place you set it
in be cool. After standing the proper time, draw it off from
the lees, and put it into another clean vessel of equal size,
or into the same, after pouring the lees out, and making it
clean; let a cask of ten or twelve gallons stand for about
three months, and twenty gallons for five months, after which
it will be fit for bottling off.
148. RED AND WHITE GOOSEBERRY WINE.
Take cold soft water, 3 gallons,
red gooseberries, 1½ gallons,
white gooseberries, 2 gallons.
Ferment.
Now mix raw sugar, 5 lbs.
honey, 1½ lbs.
tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz.
Afterwards put in bitter almonds, two ounces,
sweet-briar, one small handful, and
brandy one gallon, or less.
This will make six gallons.
149. WHITE GOOSEBERRY OR CHAMPAIGNE WINE.
Take cold soft water, 4½ gallons,
white gooseberries, 5 gallons.
Ferment.
Now mix refined sugar, 6 pounds,
honey, 4 pounds,
white tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz.
Put in orange and lemon peel, one ounce dry, or two
ounces fresh; and add
white brandy ½ a gallon.
This will make nine gallons.
150. GOOSEBERRY WINE OF THE BEST QUALITY,
RESEMBLING CHAMPAIGNE.
To each Scotch pint of full ripe gooseberries, mashed,
add one Scotch pint of water, milk-warm, in which has
been dissolved 1 lb. of single refined sugar: stir the whole
well, and cover up the tub with a blanket, to preserve the
heat generated by the fermentation of the ingredients: let
them remain in this vessel three days, stirring them twice or
three times a day: strain off the liquor through a sieve,
afterwards through a coarse linen cloth; put it into the
casks it will ferment without yeast. Let the cask be kept
full with some of the liquor reserved for the purpose. It
will ferment for ten days, sometimes for three weeks: when
ceased, and only a hissing noise remains, draw off two or
three bottles, according to the strength you wish it to have,
from every 20 pint cask, and fill up the cask with brandy
or whiskey; but brandy is preferable. To make it very
good, and that it may keep well, add as much sherry,
together with a ¼ oz. of isinglass dissolved in water to make
it quite liquid; stir the whole well. Bung the cask up, and
surround the bung with clay; the closer it is bunged the
better; a fortnight after, if it be clear at the top, taste it;
if not sweet enough, add more sugar; 22 lbs. is the just
quantity in all for 20 pints of wine; leave the wine six
months in the cask; but after being quite fine, the sooner
it is bottled, the more it will sparkle and resemble champaigne.
The process should be carried on in a place where
the heat is between 48° and 56° Fahrenheit.—N. B. Currant
wine may be made in the same manner.
151. TO MAKE BRITISH CHAMPAIGNE.
Take gooseberries before they are ripe, crush them with
a mallet in a wooden bowl, and to every gallon of fruit put
a gallon of water; let it stand two days, stirring it well;
squeeze the mixture with the hands through a hop-sieve;
then measure the liquor, and to every gallon put 3½ lbs. of
loaf sugar; mix it well in the tub, and let it stand one day;
put a bottle of the best brandy into the cask; which leave
open five or six weeks, taking off the scum as it rises; then
make it up, and let it stand one year in the barrel before it is
bottled.
The proportion of brandy to be used for this liquor, is
one pint to 7 gallons.
152. GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT WINE MIXED.
Take cold soft water, 6 gallons,
gooseberries, 4 do.
currants, 4 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 12 lbs.
honey, 3 lbs. and
tartar, in fine powder, 1½ oz.
bitter almonds, 1½ oz.
Put in brandy 6 pints, or more.
This will make 12 gallons.
153. Another.
Take cold soft water, 5½ gallons,
gooseberries and currants, 4 gallons.
Ferment.
Then add
raw sugar, 12½ lbs.
tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz.
ginger, in powder, 3 ounces,
sweet marjoram, ½ a handful,
British spirits, 1 quart.
This will make 9 gallons.
154. RED CURRANT WINE.
Take cold soft water, 11 gallons,
red currants, 8 gallons,
raspberries, 1 quart.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 20 lbs.
beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs. and
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 ounces.
Put in 1 nutmeg, in fine powder; add
brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
155. Another.
Boil four gallons of spring water, and stir into it 1 lb. of
honey; when thoroughly dissolved, take it off the fire; then
stir it well in order to raise the scum, which take clean off,
and cool the liquor.
When thus prepared, press out the same quantity of the
juice of red currants moderately ripe, which being well
strained, mix well with the water and honey, then put
them into a cask, or a large earthen vessel, and let them
stand to ferment for 24 hours; then to every gallon add 2 lbs.
of fine sugar, stir them well to raise the scum, and when well
settled, take it off, and add ½ oz. of cream of tartar, with the
whites of two or three eggs, to refine it. When the wine
is well settled and clear, draw it off into a small vessel, or
bottle it up, keeping it in a cool place.
Of white currants, a wine after the same manner may be
made, that will equal in strength and pleasantness many
sorts of white wine; but as for the black, or Dutch currants,
they are seldom used, except for the preparation of
medicinal wines.
156. Another.
Gather the currants in dry weather, put them into a pan
and bruise them with a wooden pestle; let them stand about
20 hours, after which strain through a sieve; add 3 lbs. of
fine powdered sugar to each four quarts of the liquor, and
after shaking it well, fill the vessel and put a quart of good
brandy to every 7 gallons. In 4 weeks, if it does not prove
quite clear, draw it off into another vessel, and let it stand,
previously to bottling it off, about ten days.
157. RED AND WHITE CURRANT WINE.
Take cold soft water, 12 gallons,
white currants, 4 do.
red currants, 3 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 25 lbs.
white tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
Put in sweet-briar leaves, 1 handful,
lavender leaves, 1 do.
then add spirits, 2 quarts or more.
This will make 18 gallons.
158. DUTCH CURRANT WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 9 gallons,
red currants, 10 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 1O lbs.
beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Put in bitter almonds, 1 oz.
ginger, in powder, 2 oz.
then add brandy, 1 quart.
This will make 18 gallons.
159. DUTCH RED CURRANT WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 11 gallons,
red currants, 8 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 12 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Put in coriander seed, bruised, 2 oz.
then add British spirit, 2 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
160. MIXED BERRIES, FROM A SMALL GARDEN.
Take of cold soft water, 11 gallons,
fruit 8 do.
Ferment.
Mix, treacle, 14 or 16 lbs.
tartar, in powder, 1 oz.
Put in ginger, in powder, 4 oz.
sweet herbs, 2 handsful:
then add spirits, 1 or 2 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
161. COMPOUND WINE.
An excellent family wine may be made of equal parts
of red, white, and black currants, ripe cherries, and raspberries,
well bruised, and mixed with soft water, in the
proportion of 4 lbs. of fruit to 1 gallon of water. When
strained and pressed, 3 lbs. of moist sugar are to be added
to each gallon of liquid. After standing open for three
days, during which it is to be stirred frequently, it is to be
put into a barrel, and left for a fortnight to work, when a
ninth part of the brandy is to be added, and the whole
bunged down. In a few months it will be a most excellent
wine.
162. OTHER MIXED FRUITS, OF THE BERRY KIND.
Take of cold soft water, 2 gallons.
fruit, 18 do.
Ferment.
Mix, honey, 6 lbs.
tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Put in peach-leaves, 6 handsful;
then add brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
163. WHITE CURRANT WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 9 gallons,
white currants, 9 gallons,
white gooseberries, 1 do.
Ferment.
Mix, refined sugar, 25 lbs.
white tartar, in powder, 1 oz.
clary seed, bruised, 2 oz. or
clary flowers, or sorrel flowers, 4 handsful;
then add, white brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
164. Another.
Take of cold soft water, 10 gallons,
white currants, 10 do.
Ferment.
Mix, refined sugar, 25 lbs.
white tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz.
then add, bitter almonds, 2 oz. and
white brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
165. BLACK CURRANT WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 10 gallons,
black currants, 6 do.
strawberries, 3 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 25 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 6 oz.
orange thyme, 2 handsful;
then add brandy, 2 or 3 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
166. Another.
Take of cold soft water, 12 gallons,
black currants, 5 do.
white or red currants, or both, 3 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 30 lbs. or less,
red tartar, in fine powder, 5 oz.
ginger, in powder, 5 oz.
then add brandy, 1 gallon, or less.
This will make 18 gallons.
167. STRAWBERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 7 gallons,
cider, 6 do.
strawberries, 6 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 16 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
the peel and juice of two lemons;
then add brandy, 2 or 3 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
168. Another.
Take of cold soft water, 10 gallons,
strawberries, 9 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 25 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
2 lemons and 2 oranges, peel and juice;
then add brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
169. RASPBERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 6 gallons,
cider, 4 do.
raspberries, 6 do.
any other fruit, 3 do.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 18 or 20 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
orange and lemon peel, 2 oz. dry, or 4 oz. fresh;
then add brandy, 3 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
170. Another.
Gather the raspberries when ripe, husk them and bruise
them; then strain them through a bag into jars or other
vessels. Boil the juice, and to every gallon put a pound and
a half of lump-sugar. Now add whites of eggs, and let the
whole boil for fifteen minutes, skimming it, as the froth rises.
When cool and settled, decant the liquor into a cask,
adding yeast to make it ferment. When this has taken
place, add a pint of white wine, or half a pint of proof
spirit to each gallon contained in the cask, and hang a bag
in it containing an ounce of bruised mace. In three months,
if kept in a cool place, it will be very excellent and delicious
wine.
171. MULBERRY WINE.
On a dry day, gather mulberries, when they are just
changed from redness to a shining black; spread them thinly
on a fine cloth, or on a floor or table, for twenty-four hours;
and then press them. Boil a gallon of water with each
gallon of juice; putting to every gallon of water, an ounce
of cinnamon bark, and six ounces of sugar candy finely
powdered. Skim and strain the water when it is taken off
and settled, and put to it the mulberry juice. Now add to
every gallon of the mixture, a pint of white or Rhenish
wine. Let the whole stand in a cask to ferment, for five
or six days. When settled, draw it off into bottles, and
keep it cool.
172. ELDER-BERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 16 gallons,
Malaga raisins, 50 lbs.
Elder-berries, 4 gallons,
red tartar, in fine powder, 4 ounces.
Mix ginger, in powder, 5 ounces,
cinnamon, cloves, and mace, of each 2 ounces,
3 oranges or lemons, peel and juice.
Then add 1 gallon of brandy.
This will make 18 gallons.
173. Another.
In making elder juice, let the berries be fully ripe, and
all the stalks be clean picked from them; then, have a press
ready for drawing off all the juice, and four hair cloths,
somewhat broader than the press; lay one layer above
another, having a hair cloth betwixt every layer, which
must be laid very thin and pressed a little at first, and
then more till the press be drawn as close as possible. Now
take out the berries, and press all the rest in the like manner:
then take the pressed berries, break out all the lumps,
put them into an open-headed vessel, and add as much
liquor as will just cover them. Let them infuse so for seven
or eight days; then put the best juice into a cask proper
for it to be kept in, and add one gallon of malt spirits, not
rectified, to every twenty gallons, of elder juice, which will
effectually preserve it from becoming sour for two years
at least.
174. Another.
Pick the berries when quite ripe, put them into a stone
jar, and set them in an oven, or in a kettle of boiling water,
till the jar is hot through, then take them out, and strain
them through a coarse sieve; squeeze the berries, and put
the juice into a clean kettle. To every quart of juice
put a pound of fine Lisbon sugar; let it boil, and skim it
well. When clear and fine, pour it into a cask. To
every ten gallons of wine add an ounce of isinglass dissolved
in cider, and six whole eggs. Close it up, let it stand six
months, and then bottle it.
175. IMITATION OF CYPRUS WINE.
To ten gallons of water, put ten quarts of the juice of
white elder-berries, pressed gently from the berries by the
hand, and passed through a sieve, without bruising the seeds:
add to every gallon of liquor three pounds of Lisbon sugar,
and to the whole quantity two ounces of ginger sliced, and
one ounce of cloves. Boil this nearly an hour, taking off
the scum as it rises, and pour the whole to cool, in an open
tub, and work it with ale yeast, spread upon a toast of
bread, for three days. Then turn it into a vessel that will
just hold it, adding about a pound and a half of bruised
raisins, to lay in the liquor till drawn off, which should not be
done till the wine is fine.
This wine is so much like the fine rich wine brought
from the island of Cyprus, in colour, taste, and flavour, that
it has deceived the best judges.
176. ELDER-FLOWER WINE; OR ENGLISH FRONTINIAC.
Boil eighteen pounds of white powdered sugar in six
gallons of water, and two whites of eggs well beaten; skim
it, and put in a quarter of a peck of elder-flowers; do not
keep them on the fire. When cool, stir it, and put in six
spoonsful of lemon juice, four or five of yeast, and beat well
into the liquor: stir it well every day; put six pounds of the
best raisins, stoned, into the cask, and tun the wine. Stop
it close, and bottle it in six months. When well kept, this
wine will pass very well for Frontiniac.
177. Another.
To six gallons of spring water put six pounds of sun
raisins cut small, and a dozen pounds of fine sugar; boil
the whole together for about an hour and a half. When the
liquor is cold, put half a peck of ripe elder flowers in, with
about a gill of lemon-juice, and half the quantity of ale
yeast. Cover it up, and, after standing three days, strain
it off. Now pour it into a cask that is quite clean, and
that will hold it with ease. When this is done, put a quart
of Rhenish wine to every gallon; let the bung be slightly
put in for twelve or fourteen days; then stop it down fast,
and put it in a cool place for four or five months, till it be
quite settled and fine; then bottle it off.
178. IMITATION OF PORT WINE.
Take 6 gallons of good cider,
1½ gallons of port wine,
1½ gallons of the juice of elder-berries,
3 quarts of brandy,
1½ ounces of cochineal.
This will produce nine gallons and a half.
Bruise the cochineal very fine, and put it with the brandy
into a stone bottle; let it remain at least a fortnight, shaking
it well once or twice a day; at the end of that time to procure
the cider, and put five gallons into a nine gallon cask,
add to it the elder juice and port wine, then the brandy
and cochineal. Take the remaining gallon of cider to rinse
out the bottle that contained the brandy; and lastly, pour
it into the cask, and bung it down very close, and in six
weeks it will be fit for bottling.
It is, however, sometimes not quite so fine as could be
wished; in that case add two ounces of isinglass, and let it
remain a fortnight or three weeks longer, when it will be
perfectly bright; it would not be amiss, perhaps, if the
quantity of isinglass mentioned, was added to the wine
before it was bunged down, it will tend, very considerably,
to improve the body of the wine. If it should not appear
sufficiently rough flavoured, add an ounce, or an ounce and
a half of roche-alum, which will, in most cases, impart a
sufficient astringency.
After it is bottled it must be packed in as cool a place as
possible. It will be fit for using in a few months; but if
kept longer, it will be greatly improved.
179. WORTLEBERRY, OR BILBERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 6 gallons,
cider, 6 gallons,
berries, 8 gallons;
Ferment.
Mix raw sugar 20 pounds,
tartar, in fine powder, 4 ounces.
Add ginger, in powder, 4 ounces,
lavender and rosemary leaves, 2 handsful,
rum, or British spirits, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
180. BIRCH WINE.
The season for obtaining the liquor from birch-trees, is
in the latter end of February, or the beginning of March,
before the leaves shoot out, and as the sap begins to rise.
If the time is delayed, the juice will grow too thick to be
drawn out. It should be as thin and clear as possible.
The method of procuring the juice, is by boring holes in the
trunk of the tree, and fixing faucets of elder; but care
should be taken not to tap it in too many places at once,
for fear of injuring the tree. If the tree is large, it may
be bored in five or six places at once, and bottles are to be
placed under the apertures for the sap to flow into. When
four or five gallons have been extracted from different trees,
cork the bottles very close and wax them till the wine is to
be made, which should be as soon as possible after the sap
has been obtained. Boil the sap, and put four pounds of
loaf sugar to every gallon, also the peel of a lemon cut
thin; then boil it again for nearly an hour, skimming it
all the time. Now pour it into a tub, and as soon as it is
cold, work it with a toast spread with yeast, and let it
stand five or six days, stirring it twice or three times each
day. Into a cask that will contain it, put a lighted brimstone
match, stop it up till the match is burnt out, and then
pour the wine into it, putting the bung lightly in, till it
has done working. Bung it very close for about three
months, and then bottle it. It will be good in a week after
it is put into the bottles.
181. Another.
Birch wine may be made with raisins in the following
manner: To a hogshead of birch-water, take four hundred
of Malaga raisins: pick them clean from the stalks, and
cut them small. Then boil the birch liquor for one hour
at least, skim it well, and let it stand till it be no warmer
than milk. Then put in the raisins, and let it stand close
covered, stirring it well four or five times every day. Boil
all the stalks in a gallon or two of birch liquor, which,
when added to the other, when almost cold, will give it an
agreeable roughness. Let it stand ten days, then put it in
a cool cellar, and when it has done hissing in the vessel,
stop it up close. It must stand at least nine months before
it is bottled.
182. BLACKBERRY WINE.
Having procured berries that are fully ripe, put them
into a large vessel of wood or stone, with a cock in it, and
pour upon them as much boiling water as will cover them.
As soon as the heat will permit the hand to be put into the
vessel, bruise them well till all the berries are broken.
Then let them stand covered till the berries begin to rise
towards the top, which they usually do in three or four
days. Then draw off the clear into another vessel, and add
to every ten quarts of this liquor, a pound of sugar. Stir
it well and let it stand to work a week or ten days, in another
vessel like the first. Then draw it off at the cock
through a jelly-bag into a large vessel. Take four ounces
of isinglass, and lay it to steep twelve hours in a pint of
white wine. The next morning, boil it upon a slow fire till
it is all dissolved. Then take a gallon of blackberry-juice,
put in the dissolved isinglass, give them a boil together,
and pour all into the vessel. Let it stand a few days to
purge and settle, then draw it off, and keep it in a cool place.
183. SPRUCE WINE.
For this, which is only a superior sort of white spruce
beer, proceed as follows: To every gallon of water take
1½ lbs. of honey, and ½ a pound of fine starch. The starch,
however, previously to its being blended with the honey,
liquor, or syrup, must be reduced to a fine transparent
jelly, by boiling it with part of the water purposely preserved.
A quarter of a pound of essence of spruce may be
used to 6 gallons of water; and the same method may be
pursued in working, fining, and bottling, as directed for
white spruce beer.
Spruce is a wholesome and pleasant drink to those who
are used to it, and persons soon become habituated. It
contains a vast quantity of fixed air, which is extremely
bracing; and the use of this liquor is particularly to be
recommended to such as are troubled with scorbutic
humours, or have the gravel. It is chiefly used in summer.
184. JUNIPER-BERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 18 gallons,
Malaga or Smyrna raisins, 35 lbs.
juniper berries, 9 quarts,
red tartar, 4 ounces,
wormwood and sweet marjoram, each 2 handsful.
British spirit, two quarts, or more.
Ferment for ten or twelve days.—This will make eighteen
gallons.
185. DAMSON WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 11 gallons,
damsons, 8 gallons;
Ferment.
Mix raw sugar, 30 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 6 oz.
Add brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
“When the must,” says Mr. Carnell, “has fermented 2
days, (during which time it should be stirred up two or
three times,) take out of the vat about two or three quarts
of the stones, and break them and the kernels, and then
return them into the vat again.”
186. Another Method.
Take a considerable quantity of damsons and common
plums inclining to ripeness: slit them in halves, so that the
stones may be taken out, then mash them gently, and
add a little water and honey. Add to every gallon of the
pulp a gallon of spring water, with a few bay-leaves and
cloves; boil the mixture, and add as much sugar as will
well sweeten it; skim off the froth and let it cool. Now
press the fruit, squeezing out the liquid part; strain all
through a fine strainer, and put the water and juice together
in a cask. Having allowed the whole to stand and ferment for
three or four days, fine it with white sugar, flour, and whites
of eggs; draw it off into bottles, then cork it well. In twelve
days it will be ripe, and will taste like weak Port, having
the flavour of Canary.
187. Another.
Gather the damsons on a dry day, weigh them, and
bruise them. Put them into a stein that has a cock in it,
and to every 8 pounds of fruit add a gallon of water.
Boil the water, skim it, and put it scalding hot to the fruit.
Let it stand two days, then draw it off and put it into a
vessel, and to every gallon of liquor put 2½ lbs. of fine sugar.
Fill up the vessel, and stop it close, and the longer it stands
the better. Keep it for twelve months in the vessel, and
then bottle, putting a lump of sugar into every bottle. The
small damson is the best for this purpose.
188. CHERRY WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 10 gallons,
cherries, 10 gallons.
Ferment.
Mix raw sugar, 30 lbs.
red tartar in fine powder, 3 oz.
Add brandy, 2 or 3 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
Two days after the cherries have been in the vat, Mr.
Carnell says, we should take out about three quarts of the
cherry stones, break them and the kernels, and return them
into the vat again.
189. Another.
Take cherries, nearly ripe, of any red sort, clear them
of the stalks and stones, then put them into a glazed earthen
vessel, and squeeze them to a pulp. Let them remain in
this state for twelve hours to ferment; then put them into
a linen cloth not too fine, and press out the juice with a
pressing board, or any other convenient instrument. Now
let the liquor stand till the scum rises, and with a ladle or
skimmer take it clean off; then pour the clearer part, by
inclination, into a cask, where, to each gallon put a pound
of the best loaf sugar, and let it ferment for seven or eight
days. Draw it off, when clear, into lesser casks, or bottles;
keep it cool as other wines, and in ten or twelve days it
will be ripe.
190. MORELLA WINE.
Cleanse from the stalks, sixty pounds of Morella cherries,
and bruise them so that the stones shall be broken. Now
press out the juice and mix it with 6 gallons of sherry wine,
and four gallons of warm water. Having grossly powdered
separate ounces of nutmeg, cinnamon, and mace, hang them
separately, in small bags, in the cask containing the mixture.
Bung it down, and in a few weeks it will become a deliciously
flavoured wine.
191. PEACH WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 18 gallons,
refined sugar, 25 lbs.
honey, 6 lbs.
white tartar, in fine powder, 2 ounces,
Peaches, sixty or eighty in number.
Ferment.
Then add 2 gallons of brandy.
This will make 18 gallons.
The first division is to be put into the vat, and the day
after, before the peaches are put in take the stones from
them, break them and the kernels, then put them and the
pulp into the vat, and proceed with the general process.
192. PEACH AND APRICOT WINE.
Take peaches, nectarines, &c. pare them, and take the
stones out; then slice them thin, and pour over them
from a gallon to two gallons of water, and a quart of white
wine. Place the whole on a fire to simmer gently for a
considerable time, till the sliced fruit becomes soft; pour off
the liquid part into another vessel containing more peaches
that have been sliced but not heated; let them stand for
twelve hours, then pour out the liquid part, and press what
remains through a fine hair bag. Let the whole be now put
into a cask to ferment; add of loaf-sugar, a pound and a
half to each gallon. Boil well, an ounce of beaten cloves
in a quart of white wine, and add to it the above.
Apricot wine may be made by only bruising the fruit
and pouring the hot liquor over it. This wine does not
require so much sweetening. To give it a curious flavour,
boil an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of nutmegs, in a
quart of white wine; and when the wine is fermenting,
pour the liquid in hot. In about twenty days, or a month,
these wines will be fit for bottling.
193. APRICOT WINE.
Boil together three pounds of sugar, and three quarts of
water; and skim it well. Put in six pounds of apricots
pared and stoned, and let them boil till they become
tender. Then take them up, and when the liquor is cold,
bottle it. After taking out the apricots, let the liquor be
boiled with a sprig of flowered clary. The apricots will
make marmalade, and be very good for present use.
194. LEMON WINE.
Pare off the rinds of six large lemons, cut them, and
squeeze out the juice. Steep the rinds in the juice, and
put to it a quart of brandy. Let it stand three days in an
earthen pot close stopped; then squeeze six more, and mix
with it two quarts of spring water, and as much sugar as
will sweeten the whole. Boil the water, lemons, and sugar
together, and let it stand till it be cool. Then add a quart
of white wine, and the other lemons and brandy: mix
them together, and run it through a flannel bag into some
vessel. Let it stand three months and then bottle it off.
Cork the bottle well; keep it cool, and it will be fit to
drink in a month or six weeks.
195. Another.
Pare five dozen of lemons very thin, put the peels into
five quarts of French brandy, and let them stand fourteen
days. Then make the juice into a syrup with 3 lbs. of
single refined sugar, and when the peels are ready, boil 51
gallons of water, with 40 lbs. of single refined sugar for half
an hour. Then put it into a tub, and when cool, add to it
one spoonful of yeast, and let it work two days. Then tun
it, and put in the brandy, peels, and syrup. Stir them altogether,
and close up the cask. Let it stand three months,
then bottle it, and it will be as pale and as fine as any citron
water.
196. APPLE WHITE WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 2 gallons,
apples, well bruised, 3 bushels,
honey, 10 lbs.
white tartar, 2 ounces,
1 nutmeg, in powder,
rum, 2 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
197. APPLE WINE.
To every gallon of apple juice, immediately it comes
from the press, add 2 lbs. of common loaf sugar; boil it
as long as any scum rises, then strain it through a sieve, and
let it cool; add some good yeast, and stir it well; let it
work in the tub for two or three weeks, or till the head
begins to flatten, then skim off the head, draw it clear off,
and tun it. When made a year, rack it off, and fine it with
isinglass; then add ½ a pint of the best rectified spirit of
wine, or a pint of French brandy, to every 8 gallons.
198. APPLE RED WINE.
Take of cold, soft water, 2 gallons,
apples, well bruised, 3 bushels.
Ferment.
Mix, raw sugar, 15 lbs.
beet-root sliced, 4 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
then add ginger, in powder, 3 oz.
rosemary and lavender leaves, of each 2 handsful,
British spirits, 2 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
199. QUINCE WINE.
Gather the quinces when pretty ripe, in a dry day, rub
off the down with a linen cloth, then lay them in hay or
straw for ten days, to perspire. Now cut them in quarters,
take out the cores, and bruise them well in a mashing tub
with a wooden pestle. Squeeze out the liquid part, by
pressing them in a hair bag, by degrees, in a cider press;
strain this liquor through a fine sieve, then warm it gently
over a fire, and skim it, but do not suffer it to boil. Now
sprinkle into it some loaf-sugar reduced to powder; then,
in a gallon of water and a quart of white wine, boil 12
or 14 large quinces thinly sliced: add 2 lbs. of fine sugar,
and then strain off the liquid part, and mingle it with the
natural juice of the quinces; put this into a cask (not to fill
it) and mix them well together; then let it stand to settle;
put in two or three whites of eggs, then draw it off. If
it be not sweet enough, add more sugar, and a quart of
the best Malmsey. To make it still better, boil a ¼ lb. of
stoned raisins and ½ an oz. of cinnamon bark in a quart
of the liquor, to the consumption of a third part, and
straining it, put it into the cask when the wine is fermenting.
200. Another Method.
Take 20 large quinces, gathered when they are dry and
full ripe, wipe them clean with a coarse cloth, and grate
them with a large grater or rasp as near the cores as possible;
but do not touch the cores. Boil a gallon of spring
water, throw in the quinces, and let them boil softly about
a quarter of an hour. Then strain them well into an earthen
pan, on 2 lbs. of double refined sugar. Pare the peel off
two large lemons, throw them in, and squeeze the juice
through a sieve. Stir it about till it be very cool, and then
toast a thin bit of bread very brown, rub a little yeast on
it, and let the whole stand close covered twenty-four hours.
Then take out the toast and lemon, put the wine in a cask,
keep it three months, and then bottle it. If a twenty gallon
cask is wanted, let it stand six months, before bottling it;
and remember, when straining the quinces, to wring them
hard in a coarse cloth.
201. ORANGE WINE.
Put 12 lbs. of powdered sugar, with the whites of 8 or
10 eggs well beaten into 6 gallons of spring water; boil them
¾ of an hour; when cold, put into it two spoonsful of yeast
and the juice of 12 lemons, which being pared must stand
with 2 lbs. of white sugar in a tankard, and in the morning
skim off the top, and then put it into the water; add the
juice and rinds of fifty oranges, but not the white or pithy
part of the rinds; let it work all together two days and two
nights; then add two quarts of Rhenish or white wine, and
put it into the vessel.
202. Another.
To 6 gallons of water put 15 lbs. of soft sugar; before
it boils, add the whites of six eggs well beaten, and take off
the scum as it rises; boil it ½ an hour: when cool, add the
juice of fifty oranges, and two-thirds of the peels cut very
thin; and immerse a toast covered with yeast. In a month
after it has been in the cask, add a pint of brandy and 2
quarts of Rhenish wine: it will be fit to bottle in three or
four months, but it should remain in bottle for twelve
months before it is drank.
203. ORANGE AND LEMON WINE.
Orange wine of a superior quality may be made with
2 lbs. of clayed sugar, and 1 lb. of Malaga raisins to each
gallon of water, to which add the juice and peel of an
orange, and to every 100 gallons of fluid, 4 lbs. of Rhenish
tartar.
Two lbs. of honey, and 1 lb. of Malaga raisins, with
the juice and peel of a large orange, to every gallon of
water, and 4 lbs. of Rhenish tartar to every 100 gallons of
fluid, will make an orange wine still superior to the former.
Steep and press the fruit, and expend the tartar in
setting, raising, and cutting the backs: the orange peel
and juice are not to be added until the last stage of fermentation,
that is on cutting: they will possess infinitely
more vinosity than the ordinary orange wines, indeed, nearly
as much as the juice of the vine.
Lemon wine, equally delicious, may be made in a similar
manner: both these wines, as they advance in age, lose much
of the grosser part of the orange and lemon flavour; one approaches
the bergamot, and the other a fine citron, and
become fragrant as they advance in years: they will be
more improved if treacle be used, divested of its colour and
burnt flavour.
204. PARSNIP WINE.
To 12 lbs. of parsnips, cut in slices, add 4 gallons of
water; boil them till they become quite soft. Squeeze the
liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve, and add to
every gallon 3 pounds of loaf sugar. Boil the whole three
quarters of an hour, and when it is nearly cold, add a little
yeast. Let it stand for ten days in a tub, stirring it every
day from the bottom, then put it into a cask for twelve
months: as it works over, fill it up every day.
205. WHITE MEAD WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 17 gallons,
white currants, 6 quarts.
Ferment.
Mix honey, 30 pounds,
white tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz.
Add balm and sweetbriar, each 2 handsful,
white brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
206. RED MEAD, OR METHEGLIN WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 17 gallons,
red currants, 6 quarts,
black currants, 2 quarts.
Ferment.
Mix honey, 25 pounds,
beet-root, sliced, 1 pound,
red tartar, in fine powder, 4 oz.
Add cinnamon in powder, 2 oz.
brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
207. Another.
Fermented mead is made in the proportion of 1 pound of
honey to 3 pints of water; or by boiling over a moderate
fire, to two-thirds of the quantity, three parts water and
one part honey. The liquor is then skimmed and casked,
care being taken to keep the cask full while fermenting.
During the fermenting process, the cask is left unstopped
and exposed to the sun, or in a warm room, until the working
cease. The cask is then bunged, and a few months
in the cellar renders it fit for use. Mead is rendered more
vinous and pleasant by the addition of cut raisins, or other
fruits, boiled after the rate of half a pound of raisins to
six pounds of honey, with a toasted crust of bread, an
ounce of salt of tartar in a glass of brandy, being added
to the liquor when casked; to which some add five or six
drops of the essence of cinnamon; others, pieces of lemon
peel with various syrups.
208. WALNUT MEAD WINE.
To every gallon of water, put three pounds and a half of
honey, and boil them together three quarters of an hour.
Then to every gallon of liquor put about two dozen of
walnut leaves, pour the boiling liquor upon them, and let
them stand all night. Then take out the leaves, put in a
spoonful of yeast, and let it work for two or three days.
Then make it up, and after it has stood for three months,
bottle it.
209. HONEY WINE.
Put a quantity of the comb, from which honey has been
drained in a tub, and add a barrel of cider, immediately from
the press; this mixture stir, and leave for one night. It is
then strained before fermentation; and honey added, until
the specific gravity of the liquor is sufficient to bear an
egg. It is then put into a barrel; and after the fermentation
is commenced, the cask is filled every day, for three or four
days, that the froth may work out of the bung-hole.
When the fermentation moderates, put the bung in loosely,
lest stopping it tight might cause the cask to burst. At the
end of five or six weeks, the liquor is to be drawn off into
a tub, and the whites of eight eggs, well beaten up, with
a pint of clean sand, is to be put into it: then add a gallon
of cider spirit; and after mixing the whole together, return
it into the cask, which is to be well cleaned, bunged tight,
and placed in a proper situation for racking off, when fine.
In the month of April following, draw it off into kegs, for
use; and it will be equal to almost any foreign wine.
210. COWSLIP RED WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 18 gallons,
Smyrna raisins, 40 lbs.
Ferment.
Mix beet-root, sliced, 3 lbs.
red tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Add cowslip-flowers, 14 lbs.
cloves and mace, in powder, 1 oz.
brandy, one gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
211. COWSLIP WHITE WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 18 gallons,
Malaga raisins, 35 lbs.
white tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Ferment.
Mix cowslip-flowers, 16 lbs.
Add white brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
212. COWSLIP MEAD.
Is made in this manner: to 15 gallons of water put
30 pounds of honey, and boil it till one gallon be wasted.
Skim it, take it off the fire, and have ready 16 lemons cut in
halves. Take a gallon of the liquor, and put it to the
lemons. Put the rest of the liquor into a tub with seven
pecks of cowslips, and let them stand all night. Then put
in the liquor with the lemons, 8 spoonsful of new yeast, and
a handful of sweetbriar. Stir them all well together, and
let it work three or four days; then strain it, put it into the
cask, and after it has stood six months, bottle it off.
213. CIDER WHITE WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 2 quarts,
cider, 9 gallons,
honey, 8 pounds,
white tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Ferment.
Mix cinnamon, cloves, and mace, 2 oz.
Add rum, half a gallon.
This will make 9 gallons.
214. CIDER RED WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 3 gallons,
cider, 16 gallons,
honey, 10 pounds.
Ferment.
Add raw sugar, 4 pounds,
beet-root, sliced, 4 pounds,
red tartar, in fine powder, 6 oz.
Mix sweet marjorum and sweetbriar, 3 handsful,
rum, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
215. CIDER WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 4 gallons,
cider, 15 gallons,
honey, 12 pounds,
tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz.
Ferment.
Mix ginger, in powder, 6 oz.
sage and mint, 2 handsful.
Add British spirits, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
216. GRAPE RED WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 5 gallons,
black, or red grapes, 40 pounds.
Ferment.
Mix cider, 9 gallons,
raw sugar, 20 pounds,
barberry leaves, 3 handsful,
beet-root, sliced, 2 pounds,
red tartar, in powder, 4 ounces.
Add white elder-flowers, 6 handsful, or sassafras chips, 4 pounds.
Brandy, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
217. Another.
Take of cold soft water, 6 gallons,
grapes, of any colour, 30 pounds.
Ferment.
Mix treacle, 10 pounds,
beet-root, sliced, 1½ pounds,
red tartar, in powder, 2 ounces.
Add rosemary leaves, 2 handsful,
brandy, ½ a gallon.
This will make 9 gallons.
218. Another.
Take of cold soft water, 8 gallons,
grapes, of any sort, 100 pounds.
Ferment.
Mix raw sugar, 20 pounds,
beet-root, sliced, 4 pounds,
barberry-leaves, 4 handsful,
red tartar, in powder, 6 ounces.
Add coriander seed, bruised, 2 ounces,
brandy, 6 quarts.
This will make 18 gallons.
219. GRAPE WHITE WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 13 gallons,
white grapes, 50 pounds.
Ferment.
Mix refined sugar, 25 pounds,
white tartar, in powder, 3 ounces.
Add clary seed, bruised, 3 ounces, or
clary flowers, 6 handsful,
Rum, 1 gallon.
This will make 18 gallons.
220. Another Grape Wine.
To every gallon of ripe grapes put a gallon of soft water,
bruise the grapes, let them stand a week without stirring,
and draw the liquor off fine; to every gallon of wine put
three pounds of lump sugar; put the whole into a vessel,
but do not stop it till it has done hissing, then stop it close,
and in six months it will be fit for bottling.
A better wine, though smaller in quantity, will be made
by leaving out the water, and diminishing the quantity of
sugar. Water is necessary, only where the juice is so scanty,
or so thick, as in cowslip, balm, or black currant wine, that
it could not be used without it.
221. RAISIN WINE, EQUAL TO SHERRY.
Let the raisins be well washed and picked from the
stalks; to every pound thus prepared and chopped, add one
quart of water, which has been boiled and has stood till it
is cold. Let the whole stand in the vessel for a month, being
frequently stirred. Now let the raisins be taken from
the cask and let the liquor be closely stopped in the vessel.
In the course of a month let it be racked into another
vessel, leaving all the sediment behind, which must be repeated
till it becomes fine, when add to every ten gallons,
six pounds of fine sugar, and one dozen of Seville oranges,
the rinds being pared very thin, and infused in two quarts of
brandy, which should be added to the liquor at its last racking.
Let the whole stand three months in the cask, when it will
be fit for bottling; it should remain in the bottle for a
twelvemonth.
To give it the flavour of Madeira, when it is in the cask,
put in a couple of green citrons, and let them remain till the
wine is bottled.
222. Another Raisin Wine.
Put two hundred weight of raisins, with the stalks, into
a hogshead, and fill it almost with spring water; let them
steep for about twelve days, frequently stirring, and after
pouring off the juice, dress the raisins and mash them.
The whole should then be put together into a very clean
vessel that will exactly contain it. It will hiss for some time,
during which it should not be stirred; but when the noise
ceases, it must be stopped close, and stand for about six
or seven months: and then, if it proves fine and clear, rack
it off into another vessel of the same size. Stop it up, and
let it remain for twelve or fourteen weeks longer, then
bottle it off. If it should not prove clear, fine it down with
three ounces of isinglass, and a quarter of a pound of sugar-candy,
dissolved in some of the wine.
223. GINGER WINE.
Take of cold soft water, 19 gallons,
Malaga raisins, 50 lbs.
white tartar, in powder, 4 oz.
Ferment.
Mix ginger, in powder, or bruised, 20 oz.
18 lemons, peel and juice.
Add brandy, 2 quarts, or more.
This will make 18 gallons.
224. Another.
Take 20 quarts of water,
5 lbs. of sugar,
3 oz. of white ginger,
1 oz. of stick liquorice.
Boil them well together; when it is cold put a little new
yeast upon it, but not too much; then put it into the barrel
for ten days, and after that bottle it, putting a lump of
white sugar into every bottle.
225. Another.
To seven gallons of water put nineteen pounds of clayed
sugar, and boil it for half an hour, taking off the scum as
it rises; then take a small quantity of the liquor, and add
to it nine ounces of the best ginger bruised. Now put it
all together, and when nearly cold, chop nine pounds of
raisins, very small, and put them into a nine gallon cask
(beer measure,) with one ounce of isinglass. Slice four
lemons into the cask, taking out all the seeds, and pour the
liquor over them, with half a pint of fresh yeast. Leave
it unstopped for three weeks, and in three months it will
be fit for bottling.
There will be one gallon of the sugar and water more than
the cask will hold at first: this must be kept to fill up, as
the liquor works off, as it is necessary that the cask should
be kept full, till it has done working. The raisins should
be two-thirds Malaga, and one third Muscadel. Spring
and autumn are the best seasons for making this wine.
226. RHUBARB WINE.
Take of sliced rhubarb, 2½ oz.
lesser cardamom seeds, bruised and husked, ½ oz.
saffron, 2 drachms,
Spanish white wine, 2 pints,
proof spirit, ½ pint.
Digest for ten days, and strain.
This is a warm, cordial, laxative medicine. If is used
chiefly in weakness of the stomach and bowels, and some
kind of loosenesses, for evacuating the offending matter,
and strengthening the tone of the viscera. It may be given
in doses of from half a spoonful to three or four spoonsful
or more, according to the circumstances of the disorder,
and the strength of the patient.
227. SAGE WINE.
Boil twenty-six quarts of spring water a quarter of an
hour, and when it is blood warm, put twenty-five pounds of
Malaga raisins, picked, rubbed, and shred, into it, with
almost half a bushel of red sage shred, and a porringer of
ale yeast, stir it all well together, and let it stand in a tub,
covered warm, six or seven days, stirring it once a day:
then strain it off, and put it in a runlet. Let it work three
or four days, and then stop it up; when it has stood six or
seven days, put in a quart or two of Malaga sack; and when
it is fine, bottle it.
228. GILLIFLOWER WINE.
To three gallons of water put six pounds of the best
powder sugar, boil the sugar and water together for the
space of half an hour, keep skimming it as the scum rises;
let it stand to cool, beat up three ounces of syrup of betony
with a large spoonful of ale yeast, put it into the liquor, and
brew it well together; then having a peck of gilliflowers,
cut from the stalks, put them into the liquor, let them
infuse and work together three days, covered with a cloth;
strain it, and put it into a cask, and let it settle for three
weeks; then bottle it.
229. TURNIP WINE.
Pare and slice a number of turnips, put them into a cider
press, and press out all the juice. To every gallon of the
juice, add three pounds of lump sugar; have a vessel ready
large enough to hold the juice, and put half a pint of
brandy to every gallon. Pour in the juice and lay something
over the bung for a week, to see if it works; if it does,
do not bung it down till it has done working; then stop
it close for three months, and draw it off into another vessel,
when it is fine bottle it off.
This is an excellent wine for gouty habits, and is much
recommended in such cases in lieu of any other wine.
230. ROSE WINE.
Take a well-glazed earthen vessel, and put into it three
gallons of rose-water drawn with a cold still. Put into
that a sufficient quantity of rose leaves, cover it close, and
set it for an hour in a kettle or copper of hot water, to take
out the whole strength and tincture of the roses; and when
it is cold, press the rose leaves hard into the liquor, and
steep fresh ones in it, repeating it till the liquor has got the
full strength of the roses. To every gallon of liquor put
three pounds of loaf sugar, and stir it well, that it may melt
and disperse in every part. Then put it into a cask, or other
convenient vessel, to ferment, and put into it a piece of
bread toasted hard, and covered with yeast. Let it stand
about thirty days, when it will be ripe, and have a fine
flavour, having the whole strength and scent of the roses in
it; and it may be greatly improved by adding to it wine
and spices. By this method of infusion, wine of carnations,
clove, gilliflowers, violets, primroses, or any other flower
having a curious scent, may be made.
231. BARLEY WINE.
Boil half a pound of fresh barley in three waters, and
save three pints of the last water. Mix it with a quart of
white wine, half a pint of borage water, as much of clary
water, a little red rose-water, the juice of five or six lemons,
three quarters of a pound of fine sugar, and the thin yellow
rind of a lemon. Mix all these well together, run it through
a strainer, and bottle it. It is pleasant in hot weather, and
very good in fevers.
232. ENGLISH FIG-WINE.
Take the large blue figs, when pretty ripe, and steep
them in white wine, having made some slits in them, that
they may swell and gather in the substance of the wine.
Then slice some other figs, and let them simmer over a
fire in water until they are reduced to a kind of pulp.
Then strain out the water, pressing the pulp hard, and pour
it as hot as possible on the figs that are imbrewed in the
wine. Let the quantities be nearly equal, but the water
somewhat more than the wine and figs. Let them stand
twenty-four hours, mash them well together, and draw off
what will run without squeezing. Then press the rest, and
if not sweet enough, add a sufficient quantity of sugar, to
make it so. Let it ferment, and add to it a little honey and
sugar-candy; then fine it with whites of eggs, and a little
isinglass, and draw it off for use.
233. SYCAMORE WINE.
Boil two gallons of the sap half an hour, and then add to
it four pounds of fine powdered sugar. Beat the whites of
three eggs to froth, and mix them with the liquor; but take
care that it is not too hot, as that will poach the eggs. Skim
it well, and boil it half an hour. Then strain it through a
hair sieve, and let it stand till next day. Then pour it clean
from the sediment, put half a pint of yeast to every twelve
gallons, and cover it close up with blankets. Then put it
into the barrel, and leave the bung-hole open till it has done
working. Then close it up well, and when it has stood two
months, bottle it. The fifth part of the sugar must be loaf;
and if raisins are liked, they will be a great addition to the
wine.
234. BALM WINE.
Take forty pounds of sugar and nine gallons of water;
boil it gently for two hours, skim it well, and put it into
a tub to cool. Take two pounds and a half of the tops of
balm, bruise them, and put them into a barrel, with a little
new yeast; and when the liquor is cold, pour it on the balm.
Stir it well together and let it stand twenty-four hours,
stirring it often. Then close it up, and let it stand six weeks.
Then rack it off and put a lump of sugar into every bottle.
Cork it well, and it will be better the second year than the
first.
235. SCURVY-GRASS WINE.
Scurvy-grass, or spoonwort, is a very sovereign medicinal
herb, appropriated chiefly to the health of invalids.
Take the best large scurvy-grass tops and leaves, in May,
June, or July, bruise them well in a stone mortar, then put
them in a well-glazed earthen vessel, and sprinkle them
over with some powder of crystal of tartar, then smear
them with virgin honey, and being covered close, let it
stand twenty-four hours; then set water over a gentle fire,
putting to every gallon three pints of honey, and when
the scum rises, take it off, and let it cool; then put the
stamped scurvy grass into a barrel, and pour the liquor to it,
setting the vessel conveniently end-ways, with a tap at the
bottom. When it has been infused twenty-four hours, draw
off the liquor, strongly press the juice and moisture out of
the herb into the barrel or vessel, and put the liquor up
again; then put a little new yeast to it, and suffer it to
ferment three days, covering the place of the bung or vent
with a piece of bread spread over with mustard seed, downward,
in a cool place, and let it continue till it is fine and
drinks brisk; then draw off the finest part, leaving only the
dregs behind: afterwards add more herbs, and ferment it
with whites of eggs, flour, and fixed nitre, verjuice, or the
juice of green grapes, if they are to be had; to which
add six pounds of the syrup of mustard, all mixed and well
beaten together, to refine it down, and it will drink brisk,
but is not very pleasant; being here inserted among artificial
wines rather for the sake of health than for the delightfulness
of its taste.
236. CHEAP AND WHOLESOME CLARET.
Take a quart of fine draft Devonshire cider, and an equal
quantity of good port. Mix them, and shake them. Bottle
them, and let them stand for a month. The best judge
will not be able to distinguish them from good Bordeaux.
237. DRY WINE.
Those who like a dry wine, should put into the vat, at the
commencement of the vinous fermentation, an ounce or two
of calcined gypsum, in fine powder.
MANAGEMENT OF BRITISH WINES.
238. To guard against unripe Fruit.
If the season proves bad, so that some fruits are not sufficiently
ripe, immediately after the vinous fermentation, and
the must of such fruit is put into the cask, it is to be rolled
two or three times a day, for a week or two. A spirituous
fermentation will soon commence, the bung of the cask must
then be taken out, and the hole covered with a bit of light
wood or canvas, and as any scum arises, it should be taken
away. When the scum disappears, fill up the cask, and
bung it up. But a vent-hole must be left open for a week.
239. To keep and manage Wines.
Wines will diminish, therefore the cask must be kept filled
up with some of the same wine, or some other that is as
good or better.
They must at all times be kept in a cool cellar, if not,
they will ferment. If wines are kept in a warm cellar, an
acetous fermentation will soon commence, and the result
consequently will be vinegar. The more a wine frets and
ferments, the more it parts with its strength and goodness:
when wines are found to work improperly in the cellar, the
vent-peg must be taken out for a week or two.
If any wine ferments, after being perfected, draw off a
quart and boil it, and pour it hot into the cask, add a pint or
a quart of brandy, and bung up a day or two after.
Or, draw off the wine, and fumigate the cask, with one
ounce of flour of brimstone, and half an ounce of cinnamon,
in powder. Mix the two together, and tie them up in a rag.
Turn the bung-hole of the cask downwards, place the rag
under the bung-hole, and set fire to it, so that the gas
ascends into the cask. As soon as it is burnt out, fill up the
cask with wine, and bung it up tight.
240. To sweeten a foul Cask.
Set fire to a pound or more of broken charcoal, put it into
the cask and immediately fill up the cask with boiling water.
After this, roll the cask once or twice a day for a week; then
pour out the charcoal and water, wash out the cask with
clean cold water, and expose it to the external air for some
days.
241. To improve Poor Wines.
Poor wines may be improved by being racked off, and
returned into the cask again; and then putting into the
wine about a pound of jar or box raisins, bruised, and a
quart of brandy.
Or, put to the wine two pounds of honey, and a pint or
two of brandy. The honey and brandy to be first mixed
together.
Or, draw off three or four quarts of such wine, and fill
the cask up with strong wine.
242. To improve Wine when lowering or decaying.
Take one ounce of roche-alum, make it into powder;
then draw out four gallons of wine, mix the powder with it,
and beat it well for half an hour; then fill up the cask,
and when fine (which will be in a week’s time or little
more) bottle it off. This will make it drink fine and brisk.
243. To restore Flat Wines.
Flat wines may be restored by one pound of jar raisins,
one pound of honey, and half a pint of spirit of wine,
beaten up in a mortar with some of the wine, and then put
into the cask.
244. To remove a musty or disagreeable taste in Wines.
Put into the cask three or four sticks of charcoal, and
bung up the cask tight. In a month after take them out.—Or,
cut two ripe medlars, put them in a gauze bag, and
suspend them from the bung-hole into the wine, and bung
up the cask air-tight. A month after take them out, and
bung up the cask again.—Or, mix half a pound of bruised
mustard-seed, with a pint or more of brandy, and stir it up
in the wine; and two days after bung up the cask.
245. Another Method.
At the finish of the process, when the brandy or spirit is
put to the wine, it is particularly recommended that a
quarter of an ounce of crystal camphor, in the lump, be
dropped into the bung-hole of each eighteen gallons of wine.
246. Another Method.
Oil poured upon wine, or any other liquor, will prevent
it from growing musty, or becoming corrupt.
247. To take away the ill scent of Wines.
Bake a long roller of dough, stuck well with cloves, and
hang it in the cask.
248. To pass White Wine off for Champaign.
Rack it often from the lees; and when very brilliant,
bottle it off:—this must be done between vintage time and
the month of May.
It has (says Mr. Carnell) been a most absurd practice
with many families to use green gooseberries, in order to
imitate Champaign wine; but green fruit is by no means
fit or proper for the making of any wine. Nor, indeed, is
it at all necessary in the making an imitation of Champaign.
249. To make Wine sparkle like Champaign.
Take great care to rack off the wine well, and in March
bottle it as quick as possible. The bottles must be very
clean and dry, and the corks of the best sort, made of velvet
or white cork. In two months after the wine will be
in fine condition to drink.
250. To clear foul or ropy Wines.
Take 1 ounce of chalk, in powder,
½ an ounce of burnt alum,
the white of an egg, and
one pint of spring water.
Beat the whole up in a mortar, and pour it into the wine;
after which, roll the cask ten minutes; and then place it on
the stand, leaving the bung out for a few days. As soon as
the wine is fine, rack it off.
Or, take 1 oz. of ground rice,
½ oz. of burnt alum, and
½ oz. of bay-salt.
Beat the whole up in a mortar, with a pint or more of the
wine, pour it into the cask, and roll it ten minutes. The
cask must not be bunged up for a few days. As soon as
such wine becomes fine, rack it off.
Or, bring the cask of wine out of the cellar, and place it
in a shady situation to receive the circulation of the air;
and take out the bung. In three weeks or a month, rack it
off into a sweet cask, which fill up, and put into the wine an
ounce of cinnamon, in the stick; and bung it up tight.
251. Another Method.
Tap the cask, and put a piece of coarse cloth upon that
end of the cock which goes to the inside of the cask; then
rack it into a dry cask to thirty gallons of wine, and put in
five ounces of powdered alum. Roll and shake them well
together, and it will fine down, and prove a very clear and
pleasant wine.
252. To correct green or harsh Wines.
Take 1 oz. of salt,
½ an oz. of calcined gypsum, in powder, and
1 pint of skimmed milk.
Mix those up with a little of the wine, and then pour the
mixture into the cask; put in a few lavender leaves, stir the
wine with a stick, so as not to disturb the lees, and bung
it up.
253. To correct sharp, tart, acid Wines.
Mix one ounce of calcined gypsum, in powder, and two
pounds of honey, in one quart of brandy; pour the mixture
into the wine, and stir it so as not to disturb the lees; fill up
the cask, and the following day bung it up:—rack this wine
as soon as fine.
Or, mix half an ounce of the salt of tartar, half an ounce
of calcined gypsum, in powder, with a pint of the wine;
pour it into the cask, and put an ounce of cinnamon in the
stick; stir the wine without disturbing the lees, fill up the
cask, and the day following bung it up.
Or, boil 3 ounces of rice; when cold put it into a gauze-bag,
and immerge it into the wine; put into the wine also a
few sticks of cinnamon, and bung up the cask. In about a
month after, take the rice out.
254. To restore sour Wines.
Take calcined gypsum, in powder, 1 oz.
cream of tartar, in powder, 2 oz.
Mix them in a pint or more of brandy; pour it into the
cask; put in, also, a few sticks of cinnamon, and then stir
the wine without disturbing the lees. Bung up the cask the
next day.
255. Another Method.
Boil a gallon of wine, with some beaten oyster-shells and
crabs’ claws burnt into powder, an ounce of each to every
ten gallons of wine; then strain out the liquor through a
sieve, and when cold, put it into wine of the same sort, and
it will give it a pleasant lively taste. A lump of unslacked
lime put into the cask will also keep wine from turning sour.
256. To fine or clarify Wines.
Boil a pint of skimmed milk; when cold mix with it an
ounce of chalk, in fine powder, pour it into the cask, and
roll it ten minutes. The following day bung up the wine,
and rack it off as soon as fine.
257. Another Method.
Or, take 1½ oz. of gum-arabic, in fine powder, and
1 oz. of chalk, in powder.
Mix those up with a pint more of wine, pour the mixture
into the cask, roll it ten minutes, and then fill it up. Bung it
up the next day, and rack off the wine as soon as fine.
Or, take the yolk and white of an egg,
½ oz. of chalk, in powder, and
½ oz. of burnt alum, in powder.
Beat those up in a mortar with a pint of spring water,
and pour the mixture into the wine, roll the cask; then fill
it up, and bung it up the next day.—Rack off the wine as
soon as fine.
258. To sweeten Wines.
In 30 gallons of wine infuse a handful of the flowers of
clary; then add a pound of mustard seed, dry ground, put
it into a bag, and sink it to the bottom of the cask.
259. To stop the Fermentation of Wine.
It is in the first place necessary to consider whether the
existing state of fermentation be the original or secondary
stage of that process which comes on after the former has
ceased for several days, and is indeed the commencement of
acetous fermentation. That of the former kind rarely proceeds
beyond what is necessary for the perfect decomposition of the
saccharine and other parts of the vegetable substances necessary
for the production of spirit, unless the liquor be kept too
warm, or is too weak, and left exposed to the air after the
vinous fermentation is completed. The means to correct these
circumstances are sufficiently obvious. The heat for spirituous
fermentation should not be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit;
when it is much above that point, the liquor passes rapidly
through the stage of vinous fermentation, and the acetous
immediately commences. When too long-continued fermentation
arises from the liquor having been kept in a warm
situation, it will be soon checked by bunging, after being
removed into a cold place; the addition of a small proportion
of spirits of wine or brandy, previously to closing it
up, is also proper. A degree of cold, approaching to the
freezing point, will check fermentation of whatever kind.
Fermentation of this kind cannot be stopped by any chemical
agent, except such as would destroy the qualities of
the liquor intended to be produced.
The secondary stage of fermentation, or the commencement
of the acetous, may be stopped by removing the liquor
to a cool situation; correcting the acid already formed; and
if the liquor contain but little spirit, the addition of a proper
proportion of brandy is requisite.
The operation of racking is also necessary to preserve
liquor in a vinous state, and to render it clear. This process
should be performed in a cool place.
260. To restore pricked British Wines.
Rack the wines down to the lees into another cask, where
the lees of good wines are fresh, then put a pint of strong
aqua vitæ, and scrape half a pound of yellow bees-wax into
it, which by heating the spirit over a gentle fire, will melt:
after which dip a piece of cloth into it, and when a little
dry, set on fire with a brimstone match, put it into the bung-hole,
and stop it up close.
261. Another Method.
First prepare a fresh empty cask, that has had the same
kind of wine in it which is about to be racked, then match
it, and rack off the wine, putting to every ten gallons two
ounces of oyster powder, and half an ounce of bay-salt, then
get the staff and stir it well about, letting it stand till it is
fine, which will be in a few days; after which rack it off
into another cask, (previously matched) and if the lees
of some wine of the same kind can be got, it will improve
it much.—Put likewise a quart of brandy to every ten gallons,
and if the cask has been emptied a long time, it will
match better on that account; but if even a new cask, the
matching must not be omitted. A fresh empty cask is to be
preferred.
N. B. This method will answer for all made wines.
262. A NEW METHOD OF MAKING CURRANT WINE.
Boiling the fruit is a practice of decided advantage.
From this treatment many tasteless fruits acquire a flavour,
as is well known, and many bad flavours are converted into
agreeable ones. In no case perhaps is this more remarkable
than in the black currant, which, harsh and comparatively
insipid in its natural state, acquires by boiling a powerful,
and, to most persons, a highly agreeable flavour. In making
wine from this variety of currant, the effects of this process
are very remarkable; the produce of the raw fruit being
scarcely distinguished by any particular property from the
herd of made wines, while that of the boiled fruit may with
careful management be brought to resemble some of the
best of the sweet Cape wines. In the white and red currant
the same precaution has been attended with results
equally successful, though not marked by a contrast so decided.
If sweet wine is intended, the quantity of fruit
for 10 gallons should not exceed 40 pounds; if dry wine is
desired, it may extend to 60. The proportion of sugar will
be 30 pounds as before. If a much stronger wine of either
quality is desired, it must extend to 40 pounds. Unsound
or bruised fruit should be rejected; and the remains of the
blossom and fruit stalk carefully removed.